


Transition

by microwaveslayer



Category: Star Control
Genre: Blood, Body Horror, Gore, M/M, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Non-consensual Medical Procedures, VUX Vanity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 22:23:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3912835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/microwaveslayer/pseuds/microwaveslayer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes to make a monster perfect, you have to break it first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transition

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't intend for this to be my first Star Control fanfiction, but I wrote it in the span of two hours and scared a friend with it, so I'm posting it. Stay tuned for more xenophilia and cuddles.

The human captain remembered the ship going down. Screaming. Burning. Crashing. The screech of metal and stumbling from beneath something heavy and large and hot and shiny.  
The air burned and he writhed as he choked. Then black.  
He was grateful for the sweet, loving embrace of death.

* * *

But he wasn't dead.  
A light was shining into his face. Everything felt like coming up for air after being underwater. Everything swam and his eyes watered as he stared into the light.  
“Sir, he's awake.” Monotone. Bored. Disgusted.  
“Oh wonderful.” Flamboyant. Gleeful.  
Pain dully registered in his arms. The human twitched, trying to move. He was held firmly and, as the restrains bit into his sore, exhausted flesh, he registered metal. Thick, cool metal.  
“How's he doing, DAX? Do you think we should give him something?”  
“He's held down firmly, Sir. Even if he does move, it will be slight enough to prevent further damage.”  
Damage? So this was a sick way of caring for him. That made sense to the human and he relaxed, even though the metal table was too cool against his back and he couldn't move his fingers.  
He strained to separate his fingers. When they wouldn't respond and the pain flared up, he turned his head.  
To his horror, he could see the reason he couldn't move his fingers: They were stitched together.  
“Do you think we'll have to take his bones out?”  
“But of course, Admiral. If you want him to move as fluidly as us, it will be necessary.”  
“Wait!” the human cried out.  
The table tilted in a nauseating motion. The floor rushed up and he found himself looking at two of the ugliest aliens he had ever seen. Then he did throw up.  
One, the one he recognized as Admiral ZEX, wiped his mouth with a rag. His arm slid over his cheek and he murmured, “Relax, my lovely human.”  
“You can't do this,” the human protested. Surely he would be saved.  
“We'll make you perfect,” the VUX promised. “DAX is very skilled.”  
“Don't do this.” Begging now. The pain in his hands flared up and he could feel the warm stickiness of blood.  
“I have to to make you perfect,” the VUX promised, tilting his head upwards. His tongue slithered over the captain's cheek, caressing the smooth skin.  
“Don't.”  
The table slammed back into place. Another VUX stared down at him with what could have been disgust.  
“Are you ready, DAX?”  
“As ready as I'll ever be, Sir,” mumbled the VUX towered over the human. “The thought of opening a human does not exactly appeal to me.”  
“Don't do it,” the human begged. He struggled for a few minutes against the restraints. He could feel both enormous eyes on him, watching.  
“He puts on such a lovely show,” ZEX sighed.  
“A difficult case,” DAX grumbled. “I could put him under.”  
“Only numb him enough. I would hate for him to give up so easily.”  
“As you wish, Sir.”  
The VUX called DAX brought over a machine, tearing the cloth off the captain's arm and pressing it against his bare flesh. After a jolt, the captain realised with dread that he couldn't feel his arm from the shoulder down.  
He watched with equal dread as DAX made a cut the length of his forearm.  
“No,” the human begged.” Oh god, no. Jesus.”  
“Interesting word choice,” ZEX chirped.  
DAX offered no input, instead slicing precisely. After a few snaps and cuts, he held something white and long and smeared with blood. That was when the human began to struggle again.  
“So feisty,” ZEX chirped, moving closer. “Look at me, my lovely human. I want you to know you'll be perfect soon.”  
“No, Jesus fucking . . . You can't just do this you . . . you pervert!”  
ZEX chuckled and the tongue brushed the huma's cheek again. “But of course we can.”  
DAX noted, “The hand is full of bones, Sir. This might take longer than my prior estimate.”  
“Then we'll take as long as we need.”  
The human captain glanced over and found the other VUX busying himself with closing up his arm and cleaning up. Then he began the work of removing all the bones in his hand.  
It was like watching someone pull shards of glass out of his hand. Each bleached white bone was placed in a jar of something. He didn't want to know in all honesty. After the fifth piece, the human turned his head, mustered up his courage, and spat in the VUX Admiral's eye.  
He was rewarded with an arm across the face, a slap hard enough to turn his head back to DAX's careful pulling and slicing.  
“Feisty, but ignorant,” ZEX sighed. “Don't bother numbing his other arm. Teach him pain, DAX.”  
“As you wish, Sir.”  
“Wait, no,” the human pleaded, watching his hand close up. “No no no.”  
Too late. DAX and the Admiral switched sides, the latter holding his boneless hand with the fingers held together. The scalpel dug in and the captain tried to tilt his head up, straining against his bonds.  
“We will make you perfect, even if it takes days,” ZEX growled.  
“With breaks, of course,” DAX added. “You will need time, human, to recover any lost blood cells and eat.” Some careful slices and his bone was out. His forearm closed up and there was so much blood.  
“And I'll love you as a perfect creature,” ZEX promised.  
“No, just . . . Get away from me.” Surely he could live with one arm mostly intact.  
“That's not an option my lovely human,” ZEX chuckled. “Just relax. DAX is very good at what he does.”  
“Only for you, Sir,” DAX answered, opening up his other hand.  
The human's pained howls died down to whimpers by the sixth bone. ZEX pet his face and murmured soft encouragements to him.  
“Should I continue, Sir?” DAX asked.  
“But of course. Why should we stop?” ZEX demanded.  
“Your human is rather . . . weak,” DAX pointed out. “He could use some rest.”  
“Not quite yet,” ZEX murmured. “Finish his arms and then we can let him rest.”  
The human fidgeted, hardly more than an instinctual twitch.   
“Would you like that?” ZEX asked. “Rest, I mean.”  
The human nodded. Anything, anything to stop this madness and pain and blood.  
“Shall I give him the anaesthetic?” DAX asked.  
“I believe he's learnt his lesson,” ZEX told him. “Go ahead, DAX. Treat him.”  
DAX pressed the thing again his upper arm and the human felt the jolt. He turned his head away, squeezing his eyes shut. A bumpy arm followed the curve of his cheek, soft.  
“You're so fragile and bruise so easily,” ZEX murmured, followed by the thunk of what the captain could only think of as bone.  
Another press and jolt. He turned his head away, greeted again with ZEX's embrace. Another thunk.  
“Sir, he should rest now,” DAX said.   
The human opened his eyes, staring at the two, trying to find a way out. If he could just reach the instrument damningly close to his fingers. He could curl his fingers around it and . . . That was as far as he got before he remembered his arms were literally void of bones.  
“I want to feed him, though,” ZEX said firmly.  
“As you wish, Sir. For now, let him rest. He will need some time to recover.”  
The VUX wiped his arms on a cloth, which was stained with red. His apron was covered in rusty stains. The human swallowed and tried not to think of it as his own blood.  
With a sigh, ZEX left his side. The Admiral left the room, a door clicking shut behind him.  
“You're very lucky,” DAX said, working with something his body blocked. “Or very, very screwed.”  
“Why is this happening?” the human pleaded. “Why are you hurting me?”  
DAX turned around, the machine that administered the feeling of nothing loaded with something else. DAX came to his side and pressed it against bare, boneless flesh.  
“If I had my way, I would kill you. Slit your throat and watch you bleed out all over the tile,” DAX growled.  
“Please, do it,” the human begged.   
“The Admiral would gut me if I did,” DAX answered.  
There was a jolt and the human began to feel exhausted. “Please. Why are you doing this?”  
“Humans insult us and slaughtered my people,” DAX explained. “I lost friends, but do humans care?”  
The captain stared at the VUX and the VUX stared back.  
“If I had my way, you would be dead. Left outside to suffocate and die and be eaten by the Admiral's pets.”  
“Please, help me.”  
“Go to sleep, human. You might be able to sleep through the next session.”  
The human closed his eyes, giving into the medication, whatever it was. The light clicked off and, despite his position, the human fell asleep.

* * *

He dreamed of home. Of Earth.  
On Earth, he was safe and in the arms of a person who was human. The person reached up and grabbed his head, kissing him and pulling, tugging ever so slightly.  
In his dream, a sharp pain jolted him. This person was pulling, tearing flesh and hair. He could feel the warmth of blood and then savage, burning heat.  
He woke up screaming and the Admiral held his hand.  
“I was wondering when you would wake up,” the VUX chirped. “We're going to make sure you have a tendril frill and that you can move them. Won't that be lovely?”  
The human tried to turn his head, but found it put uncomfortable pressure on his windpipe. He was forced to look straight ahead.  
Another sharp pain sent him reeling.  
“What--”  
“A simple matter,” ZEX told him confidently. “Your head is so strange, but we can fix it.”  
“A difficult matter,” DAX corrected. “There's the issue of muscle movement to control the tendrils, Sir.”  
“But you're incredible at what you do.”  
DAX grunted and another pain brought tears to the human's eyes.   
“Why do you keep doing this?” he murmured.  
ZEX's tongue followed the path of his tears, licking them up. For a moment, the human thought the tongue would invade his eye sockets and he tried to turn away, only to have DAX grumble for him to hold still.  
“I want you to be perfect,” ZEX murmured.  
The human shut his eyes and tried to block out the series of pains. Slice, drip, cauterize. Over and over.  
When he didn't feel the rhythm of pain, the human opened his eyes.  
ZEX forced his mouth open, shoving something inside. Food. The captain chewed and swallowed, relaxing ever so slightly.  
ZEX looked positively delighted.  
“DAX says you need to eat.”  
The human nodded ever so slightly.  
“Sir, we should move onto the mouth next. Or, would you prefer working on his facial structure?” DAX asked, outside the captain's field of view.  
“Oh, it's so hard to choose,” ZEX mused, tongue flicking out and over the human's cheek. “Can we do his face?”  
“As you wish, Sir.”  
ZEX continued to feed the human, smiling at him. “You'll be perfect.”  
The human only responded by eating what was offered. He was still mutilated, strapped down, and at the mercy of two VUX whose mental states could be described, at best, as shaky.  
ZEX smiled, tongue brushing his neck once the human finished eating.  
“Sir, I would advise you to leave now. He needs rest.”  
ZEX nodded. “But of course, DAX. You know their anatomy better.”  
“Only because of you, Sir.”  
ZEX left the room, the door clicking behind him.  
“I thought he liked aliens,” the human said in a soft voice. His throat hurt and he could use some water.  
“He does. But consider this an experiment,” DAX said form somewhere to his left. “If he could love something VUX-shaped but human, it would help him ease into a normal life. That's all anyone wants.”  
“What about me?”  
DAX came into his vision, eye narrowed. “What about you?”  
“Are you going to kill me?”  
“Later,” DAX promised. “Once the admiral's had his fun.”  
“Fun?”  
“Sex. For such a smart species, you can be incredibly dull.”  
The machine pressed against his flesh again. There was a jolt and the human gave into sleep, embracing it.

He didn't dream.  
He woke up to a bright light in his face, tilted slightly backward with his jaws forced apart and DAX and ZEX hovering above him.  
He felt terribly dizzy.  
Something metal was lowered into his mouth. A tooth was grabbed, then wrenched free. The human cried out, hearing it clink onto metal, a tray next to DAX where the VUX put seemingly everything.  
“I hope you understand,” ZEX murmured. “We changed out minds about what to do.”  
“You changed your mind, Sir,” DAX reminded him.  
Unable to say anything, the human whined like a dog kicked.  
“Oh, don't make that noise, now,” ZEX told him. “You're going to be my new favourite beast.”  
DAX wrenched another tooth from the gum. He pressed a cloth too roughly against his bleeding mouth.  
“I hardly expected this much blood.”  
“It's natural, DAX,” the admiral said.  
“We’ll have to re-arrange the tongue as well, Sir.”  
“Make him perfect and beastly.”  
“As you wish, Sir.”  
Another tooth. Another. Clink, clink, clink. After a while, the pain got to be nothing. A background, a ghost of a feeling.   
Once his guns were void of teeth, the pliers clamped down on his tongue.  
“What can we do about it?” ZEX asked, staring into the human's mouth.  
“I think, if we take some of the flesh off the sides, we can use that to extend it,” DAX murmured.  
“Oh, genius!” ZEX chirped.  
The first slice brought blood and pain. The human whimpered and tried to breathe through his nose instead. He felt like he was drowning and tears sprang to his eyes, travelling backwards.  
“Don't let him suffocate,” ZEX warned the other VUX.  
DAX tilted the table up ad forward and the human spat out the blood onto the tile. There was more than he expected.  
The table tilted back at alarming speed. DAX worked quickly, reattaching things in the wrong places and making sure they stayed. Then the table went forward and the human coughed up blood and bile, all over the tiles.  
The table whirled back and there was a second slice. The whirling, spitting, reassembling came again, bringing tears to his eyes and he struggled.  
It would be better to drown in his own blood than survive this torture, but DAX seemed intent on keeping him alive.  
Tongue assembled into something wrong and too big for his mouth, the human whimpered, receiving the gentle touches of the admiral.  
“Almost done, darling. You're almost perfect.”  
He whimpered and shit his eyes.  
“Should we let him rest, Sir?”  
“I think so,” ZEX murmured. A long, silent pause. “He spat up so much blood.”  
“Sir, we should give him liquids from now on.”  
ZEX agreed, “Of course. I would hate for him to choke.”  
“Please,” the human mumbled. It came out as mutilated and garbled as himself, but still semi-coherent.  
“Please what, my darling?”  
“Kill me.”  
ZEX laughed. There was the rustle of fabric and the laugh faded into the distance. A click.  
“You are incredibly stupid, human,” DAX whispered into his ear. “He'll never let you die if he has anything to say about it.”  
The human made an awkward, pained noise, tongue flopping uselessly outside his mouth.  
“Rest. We'll feed you well and make you something new,” DAX promised.  
The jolt. Sleep followed and it was incredibly black.

When he woke up, the human couldn't feel his neck. He could, however, feel the squirming of somethings on his scalp. He cried out in fear and opened his eyes.  
“Oh good,” ZEX sighed, reaching up to cup his cheeks with his arms. “You're awake.”  
“Sir, once we reconstruct his facial features, he'll be almost an exact replica of the common VUX,” DAX said, somewhere to the right.  
“Wonderful,” ZEX said.  
The human whimpered and ZEX ran his tongue over his chin.  
“Don't be scared,” ZEX begged.   
There was a jolt. The human defiantly slid into the darkness of sleep, away from the admiral.

* * *

He woke up but could not see. Immediately, he began screaming.  
“ . . . temporary blindness, Sir,” he heard DAX explain.  
“Oh, wonderful,” ZEX sighed. His arms wrapped around the human's, making him whimper. “You'll be seeing soon.”  
His face felt hot and his head too heavy.  
“Let him rest, sir.”  
“Yes, DAX. Of course.”  
The rustle and click.  
Gauze was pressed against his face, which felt heavy and too small, to cramped for his mind.  
“Lemmoutsh,” he slurred.  
“Rest, human.”  
The jolt and sleep and darkness and no more pain.  
The human couldn't wait for death.

* * *

He wasn't sure of many things in the time that followed.  
He had no frame of time. How long did it take for his mangled body to heal? How long was he against the table?  
He didn't know whether DAX or ZEX fed him most of the time.  
Things got really confused when he couldn't see.  
He began to fantasize again about his escape.  
Surely, some hero of his crew would find this place. They would kill ever VUX, spill their blood everywhere. With a gun in one hand and a key in another, they would lead him off to the safety of space and Earth ad he would be put right.  
He wouldn't be so mutilated any more.  
Did any members of his crew survive? Where were they? He remembered dimly waking up alone and nearly suffocating.  
What he wouldn't give for lungfuls of methane and ammonia and death.  
He made due by laying limply and embracing the darkness.

The day his sight came back was the day he wished he would have died upon impact.  
The gauze was unrolled, the tendrils on his head squirming. ZEX was chattering to DAX. The light blinked into existence and then got more and more bright, blinding him.  
“Itsapainshobad,” he managed.  
“DAX--”  
“He's fine, Sir. Probably dreaming.”  
The last of the gauze came away and the VUX backed away.  
“He's a monster!” ZEX cried, staring morbidly at the human.  
“Just as you wanted,” DAX pointed out.  
“He's lovely.”  
“I made him for you, after all,” DAX pointed out.  
“Oh, DAX, he's magnificent.”  
“There's one thing he's missing, Sir.”  
“What's that?”  
“A snout.”  
“Oh, you're so right,” ZEX said.   
“I can fix it, of course.”  
“Would you?”  
“Handle me the bridle,” DAX murmured.  
The human's jaws were forced open as he began to feel his face, hot and heavy. He tried to move his left eye and right eye separately, but only one large eye moved. He began whimpering ad trying to scream as DAX forced the device into his mouth.  
His flesh came apart in strips and he could feel the hot, sticky blood running over his face.  
“Careful,” ZEX warned.  
“I am nothing if not careful, Sir,” DAX replied.  
The human felt his flesh grafted onto something cold and metal and firm and he screeched as best he could. He made a serious of nonsense words in gibberish.  
“He'll be perfect in a few days, Sir. The chitin from the labs will be completed and we'll ensure his snout is strong.”  
ZEX giggled, something mad and giddy. The human wished to be able to slit his own throat.  
“Let's let him rest, Sir.”  
“But of course, DAX.”

* * *

The days blurred together in a mess of healing and cleaning. DAX was careful but not gentle. Sometimes the human believed he made him bleed just to spite him.  
While he was resting, the VUX replaced bones with chitin, converting him into a monster.  
Once the restraints snapped into the table, the human sat up. ZEX pulled him up, but the human was reluctant to walk. Everything was so sore and mutilated and wrong.  
“I have to show you how lovely you look,” ZEX murmured, leading him.  
With no choice, the human decided to follow. ZEX half-dragged him into a room, a large bed against one wall, posters of aliens everywhere.  
“Come look,” ZEX murmured, pulling him toward a mirror.  
His pulse pounded in his head. The human didn't want to look but ZEX insisted.  
What he saw, he didn't recognize.  
Tendrils squirmed on top of his head, just like the admiral. In fact, his skin colour was the only thing the human could use to define the difference between them. His arms moved in a slithering, sinewy fashion. His face tapered into a snout. He couldn't turn his head and had to turn his entire body to get a look at something.  
One large eye stared back at him from the polished glass.  
He sunk to his knees and began to scream.

* * *

After a while, he became used to being a pet.  
ZEX treated him well, feeding him often. The bed was comfortable and he could handle being chained to it like a slave. Even the sex, once repulsive, became routine. He hardly even fought back.  
Once a week, DAX came to check up on him. Nothing came loose, nothing bled. Everything scarred.  
The visits tapered off and the admiral's time with his monstrous human grew longer and longer. Sometimes they spent days in bed.  
He lost his speech when he lost his teeth and tongue. Everything was vague noises of pain or calm. Nothing between the two mattered.  
It seemed the admiral would never get bored of him.  
Then he did.  
Admiral ZEX came into the room and the human turned. On his arm was a pretty enough VUX, though a bit young for ZEX. The human understood and made a soft, pained noise.  
“Just a pet,” ZEX explained, leaving the other VUX at the door. “A monster.”  
He unchained the human and shooed him. The other VUX glared at him. ZEX took his lover into the room and left the human in the hallway.  
“Took long enough,” DAX said softly.  
The human whirled around and, in his pain, collapsed into DAX's arms, sobbing with reckless abandon.  
“I warned you this would happen,” DAX murmured. “Foolish little pet.”  
The human reached for him, sinewy arms intertwined with DAX's. The other VUX lead him down the hallway, away from the sounds of the admiral and his new lover.  
“It was a successful transition, though,” DAX mused. “He's perfectly fine now.”  
The human only stared, blinked at him.


End file.
